July may be the month from hell, in terms of health assaults that are normally reserved for the chillier months of the year. What’s more bizarre is how things sort of followed one another, as though they’ve all been waiting in the background until the latest has done its act, and the next one can move into the spotlight. From cough to strep throat, then food poisoning to vertigo, and now a return to throat issues either old or newly malevolent, it’s been a lousy July.

(Vertigo is like being drunk without the booze – which some might enjoy – but it’s challenging to even sit and read text on a screen because eye movement makes things feel dizzy and queasy.)

During these 2 weeks of internal biological warfare, there have been a few pleasant surprises, in terms of relief f sorts from folk and medical stuff. Honey may not cure a sore throat, but it provides some satisfaction when it feels as though battery acid’s been burning down the throat. Ginger root, sliced up and cured with boiling water to make a tea, keeps the stomach stable and also soothes the throat.

Orange juice I found too acidic, so I opted to drink lots of Oolong tea, which never created an upset. Black tea also works, but Oolong was much more soothing. A better hybrid of chicken soup is chicken and lentil soup with a rich broth devoid of heavy spices, but plenty of large pieces of chicken, which was enough to subsist form daily during the strep throat idiocy.

Fisherman’s Friend are better lozanges than Hall’s because their release of menthol is slower but equally sharp, and less heavy in sugar. Fuzzy Peach candy (I swear) is also a good emergency throat soother because it’s sweet, slightly tart, and one can use it for a slow dissolve until one gets a hand on a proper lozenge or medicine.

The ultimate goal right now is to get current articles and interviews online before I conk out from queasiness, and the long-term goal is to meet those self-imposed deadlines, which include upgrading the site for mobile gizmos, the launch of Big Head Amusements (a site for some of the satirical nonsense I’ve been working on this summer), and what may seem to be unrelated: to be able to eat once again my favourite foods. I’m not referring to my own cooking, but eating at Mother’s Dumplings, The Hungary Thai, and Asteria’s Greek food.

The BRAT diet (bananas, rice, applesauce and toast) is b o r i n g, and I miss real food.

Next post: a review of the last Star is Born film: the 1976 Barbra Streisand thingy. All 5,000 words of it.